Saturday 30th July

I had no repercussions from doing the locks yesterday but Richard was very stiff – we assume after trying to free with propeller on Thursday. We set off towards Stourport and were soon tied up above York Street Lock. We wandered down to the canal basin and out onto the river then back to the boat via the High Street. Richard then decided he fancied a pint so we walked back to the river and sat and had lunch at a pub overlooking it. The day was getting quite hot and I was grateful that there were lots of sun umbrellas. Back at the boat we went down York Street lock and into the basin where we go water and diesel. To get out of the basin and onto the Severn there are two staircase locks with a very interesting tight turn from one to the other. It was really nice to be back on a river but it is nothing like the Thames as so far the banks have been rather overgrown. The first mooring place we came to was at Hampstall Ferry and The Hampstall Inn. There were very nice pontoons and a nice space just our size! It turned out that the pub owns the pontoon and either charge £10 a night or if you eat at the pub the mooring is free – needless to say we took the eating option! The food was very good and reasonably priced but I’m afraid that the service let it down and we never did get a pudding. We went back to the boat and sat on the pontoon with a coffee in candlelight – aaah :-)

Friday 29th July

We pulled away from the bank rather gingerly this morning but all was fine :-) We didn’t have far to go before we got to the Stourton Locks at the junction with Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. These locks are so pretty as the people who live adjacent to them have kept them really nicely. Once we were on the Staffs & Worcs we noticed much more traffic – we had rather got used to the Stourbridge as being our own! We stopped at Kinver and walked into the town for lunch. I was rather disappointed as the canal guide had rather waxed lyrical about it – it was pretty but I’ve seen prettier! After lunch we pressed on through some lovely countryside and passed some beautiful houses – there must be a lot of money in the area. After Whittington Lock the canal became rather dark – the day was dull anyway but I found it rather oppressive and came down below :-( We soon arrived in Kidderminster and passed (yes passed!) a Sainsburys in quite a large retail park, very close to the canal and then onto Kidderminster Lock. The lock there is very strange as you descend down into the bowels of a roundabout! I was doing the lock (I did quite a few today as most of them have little bridges crossing them which makes it easy for me) and it seemed really strange watching the boat disappear! After the lock we came across an old warehouse which Debenhams have taken over and completely renovated it along with a rather nice glass extension. We then found a Tesco even closer to the canal and again, PASSED it! We weren’t too sure where we were going to stop for the night and at 6.30pm (the latest we’ve still been going) pulled over just under a bridge – we had had enough!

Thursday 28th July

Oh dear – a bad day :-( We had a real panic in the morning as we lost Millie. We were just about to leave at 10am when I realised that she wasn’t on board so I went and called her but nothing. I must have gone out and called her half a dozen times and Richard went looking for her but nothing. There was a spiky fence between us and some scrub land but we couldn’t get through. We had a very sombre lunch and as Richard got up he saw her appearing through the fence. She sauntered to the front of the boat and climbed on as if nothing was wrong. We shut her in the bedroom and cast off quickly before she disappeared again! While we were in Birmingham Millie hadn’t been allowed out so for 4 nights she had been confined to barracks – we are wondering if this was our punishment!! We went back down the canal towards Wordsley Junction and turned left. The guide book says that this part of the canal has “a precarious beauty about it as it winds past Primrose Hill and through the woodland above the Stour”. We were just enjoying it when there was an awful clunk and the propeller stopped turning. We drifted to the bank and tied up. Richard opened up the weedhatch and discovered a mass of sisal bound up with knotted cord. He managed to cut some of it away but just didn’t have a sharp enough knife. So it was a case of a call to River and Canal Rescue. The young engineer (barely out of nappies!) arrived after about three hours. He had had to leave his van about 600 yards along the canal and I thought he would arrive with a trolley loaded with tools but all he had was a bolt cutter and 4 pints of milk - the lady at the control centre had asked if there was anything we needed :-) He got down and fiddled around and then said that everything was free – he hadn’t even used the bolt cutters! Between Richard and the young man they pulled up masses of the sisal – it looked a bit like coarse hay in a hay net! When I asked him how he did it he just said that it was a knack! We decided to stay put for the night as it really was a lovely spot and Richard cooked a BBQ.

Wednesday 27th July

Another early start but we had 24 locks to do. The 8 Delph Locks started just around the corner and were fairly easy. The locks are all fairly deep and dropped us down 85 feet from the Dudley No 1 Canal to the Stourbridge Canal. Its great going down flights as you have such a lovely view of the valley below. Just around the corner we came across a very low bridge called Brettell Lane Bridge and we had to stop and take the chimney off – I also lost three marigold flowers :-( The next flight of locks was the Stourbridge Flight which consists of 16 locks which dropped us down a further 145 feet. Locks 9 and 10 are telescoped together and were once a true staircase – but now there is just a gap of about 40 feet. I was working this lock and as I emptied the upper one I looked over and wondered where on earth the water was going to go but it appears that there is a culvert under the adjacent cottage. We stopped at Lock 12 and tied up outside the Red House Glass Cone which lies in the heart of the Stourbridge glassmaking industry. It was built at the end of the 18th Century and was used for the manufacture of glass until 1936 and is now one of only four cones left in the United Kingdom. Reaching 100 feet into the sky, the Cone enclosed a furnace around which men made glass for 140 years. At the bottom of the flight we made a sharp left turn up towards Stourbridge Town Wharf where we turned round a stopped for the night just up from the wharf.

Tuesday 26th July

We had quite a few miles to do today and we were under way by 9.20am! One lock but a lot of junctions to negotiate. We are used to getting to the end of a canal and then turning either left or right – all these junctions made life complicated but interesting! To start with we were on the Main Line but that splits at Smethwick Junction to become the Old Line and the New Line. We chose the New Line as there are no locks. Eventually a spur of the Old Line joined the New Line and the canal then becomes the New Main Line! We took the second turning on the left which was the Netherton Branch and after going under an aqueduct which holds the Old Main Line we came to the Netherton Tunnel which is 3027 yards long. Millie doesn’t like tunnels so I came down below and caught up on a few emails. She soon came and sat beside me with her eyes wide like saucers! Once we were out of the tunnel she jumped down and settled back onto her chair and went back to sleep! Just after the tunnel we joined the Dudley No 2 Canal at Windmill End Junction – it was quite pretty there with a café on Netherton Tunnel with the Old Main Line aquaduct in the foregroundthe towpath with lots of people sitting outside. We continued down the canal to Park Head Junction where we joined the Dudley No 1 Canal and where we had our one lock to do – a deep one of 12 feet. There were two young boys there with their Grandad and they were fascinated by th:-) We weren’t too sure where we were going to stop and came firstly to The Waterfront and tied up there. It wasn’t where I thought we would be so we moved on a bit to, almost, on top of the Merry Hill Shopping Centre! I restrained myself from looking round the centre but we did frequent Sainsburys.

Today’s history lesson! Along the Main Line and the New Main Line are Toll or Gauging Points. Generally these were at a lock but here they have built an artificially constricted part of the canal so that the boat had to pass within inches of the toll point and unable to evade the toll. On canals where the fee was based on cargo weight it also put the boat in a convenient place to read the gauging mark height from the water line. Canals were set up Toll point with a Telford Aquaduct behindas commercial enterprises. The fee for using the canals was dependent on the type of cargo and its weight. Each boat had to have four (or, for some canal companies - Swansea, Glamorganshire, Oxford, six) gauging plates fitted to the hull at the "corners" of the boat - bow and stern at each side - indicating a measurement point and a boat serial number. The boat was calibrated by measuring the height of the gunwales above water level at each corner with the boat unladen and then measured again when known weights had been loaded into the boat from an overhead gantry. These measurements were logged in toll-keeper's tables and copies sent to every toll office within the boat's trading range. At toll offices if a toll collector suspected an incorrect waybill (declared cargo) the height of the four corners of the boat were checked with a gauging stick and averaged to allow for uneven cargo loading. That boat's entry in the gauging table was used to determine the cargo weight. The toll fee was worked out from the weight and cargo type.

Monday 25th July

A lovely peaceful night :-) In fact we were up early – well for us anyway! Our plan today was to go down the Worcester & Birmingham to King’s Norton Junction where the North Stratford Canal comes in. We will come into that junction again next month from Stratford so we wanted to see the top of the Worcester & Birmingham. King’s Norton Junction was lovely and we did debate on staying the night but we have a heavy day ahead tomorrow so needed to be in the centre of Birmingham so we did an about turn and retraced our steps. Cadbury World is on that part of the canal with plenty of mooring outside. We went back along Gas Street Straight and turned right towards Cambrian Wharf where we got water. We did another about turn and headed up the Main Line as we wanted to do a complete loop using Oozells Loop. However it wasn’t as easy as that!! There are two entrances to Oozells Loop which means there are four ways of getting in – from the right and left of each end. The way we chose is not possible for a 60 foot boat and we almost got stuck across the canal! Richard backed up and we went on up the Main Line until we could turn round and then go into Oozells Loop – see photo. The Loop is interesting as there are some seriously expensive looking flats, quite a few residential moorings and also Sherborne Wharf. Looking over the wharf is the one of the last warehouses to be built for a famous canal carrying company Fellows Morton & Clayton. This building now contains modern apartments. Sherborne Wharf was once a busy canal carrying wharf for Fellows Morton & Clayton and the two small white washed brick buildings in my photo are original. Further round the loop and under an old bridge we came to the visitor’s moorings having passed a gym where musclely men were working out! At the end of the loop is the National Indoor Arena which is one of the busiest large scale indoor sporting and entertainment venues in Europe also just along Gas Street Straight in the International Conference Centre which stages more than 400 conferences and related meetings and events each year.

Sunday 24th July

Well, we were warned before we got here that Gas Street on Friday and Saturday nights is noisy but we didn’t really have much option at the time. The pubs were all quiet by 11.30pm which surprised me but then the nightclub started and finally finished at 4.00am!! Where we are in the basin is fairly safe as there is a gate to the residential part of the basin which is locked at night so no one comes past us however on the other side of the water the towpath must lead somewhere as hoards of riotous revelers kept passing till at least 4.30am :-( We are just hoping that tonight, with it being Sunday, it will be quieter. When we eventually came too and got going we went for a walk to the Jewellery Quarter. It was quite a long way and even before we got there my knee was beginning to ache. We weren’t too sure where we were going but we found a nice young Police Officer who told us exactly where to go!! A lot of the jewellery shops were closed mainly because it is Sunday but also it is the holidays here in Birmingham. We went in a couple but I could tell that Richard was not interested!! The Police Officer had told us to keep looking up to see the buildings and there were certainly some interesting edifices and some lovely old warehouses. I’m afraid I didn’t take any photos which I regret now. We had a rest in St. Paul’s Square where the Church there was built in 1777. When my knee allowed it we walked back to the boat for lunch. In the afternoon we wandered down the Gas Street straight to The Mailbox. Dominating the skyline is The Cube – a wonderful modern building which houses a hotel, offices, apartments, spa, restaurant and, eventually, shops. I was going to write more about it but there was just too much to write – this hyperlink takes through to Wikipedia which is very interesting. The Mailbox itself was rather disappointing as it is either restaurants or up-market shops! We did, however, frequent Tesco Express! Millie doesn’t like it very much here as she can’t go out as there are too many people around but she enjoyed sitting on the top step in the sunshine doing some people watching!

Now for some history! The Birmingham Canal, completed in 1773, terminated at Old Wharf beyond Bridge Street. When the Worcester and Birmingham Company started their canal at a point later known as Gas Street Basin the Birmingham Canal Navigations Company (BCN) insisted on a physical barrier to prevent the Worcester and Birmingham Canal from benefiting from their water. The Worcester Bar, a 7 ft. 3 in. wide straight barrier 84 yards long was built perpendicular to the run of the two canals. Cargoes had to be laboriously manhandled between boats on either side. The Worcester and Birmingham Canal opened between Birmingham and Selly Oak on 30 October 1795 but took until 1815 to complete to Worcester, at which time, after much lobbying by iron and coal masters and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal Company, an Act of Parliament was passed to open up the bar and the bar lock was built. There were toll offices either side of the bar lock and tolls were collected by each company from boats using the canals. The Worcester Bar still exists, with boats moored to both sides of it. It is connected to Gas Street via a footbridge reconstructed to a design by Horseley Ironworks of the 19th century. During the 1990s much of the area around the basin was redeveloped and older buildings refurbished.

Saturday 23rd July

We had a leisurely cruise this morning to our overnight destination – firstly through suburbia and eventually through a more industrialised area. It smelt pretty rank in places! When we got to our destination it was awful, so bad that I’m going to write to British Waterways and ask how they can call it a mooring place. We had no choice but to carry on down the 6 locks of the Camp Hill flight passed the junction with the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal, up the 6 locks of the Ashted flight and eventually onto the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Aston Junction. We knew that there were 13 locks in the Farmer’s Bridge flight but neither of us were prepared for what we came across! A lot of them were under bridges and buildings – two being right under a new apartment block, it was quite eerie. It was hard work too for both of us as my knee was objecting and poor Richard had all the locks against him and, as it was so windy and the pounds so short, he had to have both the gate of the lower lock and the gate of the higher lock open together so I could drive straight in without being blown about – it was a lot of walking :-( At the second to the top I was bombarded by rowan berries and sticks by a group of kids in a park – I ignored them which I think made them carry on even more. At the top lock is Cambrian Wharf where we debated stopping but it was right next to a pub so decided it might be a bit noisy. We turned into, what I will call, the Gas Street straight and it was lovely - lots of activity and flowers everywhere. We found Gas Street Basin and turned in having no idea what was what but found a 24 hour mooring spot – there are only two in the basin the rest are residential. You can moor down the straight but it was in shadow and our stern got all the evening sun :-) We went for a walk and a very nice burger in the evening and found more mooring spots on the Oozells Loop and the Main Line which we would consider for next time.

Friday 22nd July

We woke up to some blue sky :-) Which was a pleasant change. We filled up with water and were just about to set off when Richard asked me to check that Millie was on board. Normally we don’t worry about her but, for some reason, this morning she had been ashore and brought us a mouse for our breakfast! It’s just as well I checked as she was missing!! I walked up and down calling and eventually a little black head popped out from the long grass – I picked her up and put her on board and Richard quickly set off. Millie then proceeded to walk through the boat to the front and stood on the seat watching the land slipping away! We will have to watch her more closely from now one. We passed the entrance to the Stratford Canal and noticed just how bashed up the sides of the bridge are! We just had five locks to do today which where the Knowle Flight and all very close together. We were lucky as we met other boats coming towards us and had left gates open for us and all the locks were empty. We had a set destination which was Catherine de Barnes or more commonly known to locals as Catney. Its name originates from Ketelberne, the man who owned it after the Norman Conquest in 1066. However it is mainly a later settlement probably dating from the building of the Grand Union Canal there and the present St Catherine's church. There is a very handy Spar just over the bridge where we bought some milk and a paper! I’m afraid the lovely day turned to rain during the evening and boy did it rain :-( Millie had a shock this evening as a boat pulled up behind us and off jumped two rather large black and white cats – she was terrified! Richard put her cat flat door in and she sat on the top step of the companionway and looked at the door and saw one enormous black and white face peering in at her!! I doubt if she will go out tonight.

Thursday 21st July

Wahey! A day off :-) We decided that my knee could with a day’s rest and also the forecast wasn’t good. We woke up to rain but after one other short sharp shower the day was fine and, in fact, warm in the afternoon. We had a quiet morning pouring over maps trying to decide where to go. We had already decided on our route but then had a change of mind as we will be doing the Worcester and Birmingham canal with my sister and brother-in-law in August and as the Tardebigge Flight, which consists of 30 locks, is on that canal we decided that once is enough! We went for a walk in the afternoon – not too far for me but Richard went on further and came across the Stratford Canal. We discovered though, that it is a very wealthy area and if you don’t have electric gates then you are a nobody!! In the evening we visited the local hostelry, The Tom O’The Wood which looked really charming and old from the outside (see the left hand building in the photo) but has been made into a gastro-pub and is rather spoilt and soulless on the inside

Wednesday 20th July

Today was the Hatton Flight – 21 broad locks. I wanted to be prepared for a hard day so I got a casserole going in the slow cooker and made sandwiches for lunch! We left the Saltisford Arm and headed for the locks. We had hoped that we would find another boat to go up with but we were unlucky
:-( However we were lucky in that about 16 of the locks were in our favour with boats coming down and leaving gates open for us. The last fifteen locks are one after the other and Richard and I got quite a system going but it did mean him walking backwards and forwards from one to the other. Almost at the top is the British Waterways maintenance place where I spotted the van in the photo! We made the top and moored up to eat our sandwiches – it had taken us exactly 3 hours which was quicker that we anticipated it would take. Richard had a shower and we set off again for about four miles and moored up at Turner’s Green for the night.

Tuesday 19th July

We passed a very strange craft this morning – we weren’t too sure which was the front and which was the back! There were a number of locks today but all spread out which made life a bit easier. North of Leamington Spa there is a Tesco with mooring outside, so we did our shopping and managed to take the trolley all the way back to the boat. Richard was a good boy and took the trolley back to Tesco and didn’t throw it into the canal!! Our destination today was Warwick and the Saltisford Arm which is all that remains of the Warwick terminus of the Warwick and Birmingham Canal. The part of canal from Napton to Warwick used to be called the Warwick and Napton Canal but in January 1929 the present Grand Union Canal came into being and was formed of an amalgamation of eleven different canals and now runs from Birmingham to London and there is an offshoot at Norton Junction which takes you up through Leicester and up to the River Trent. The Saltisford Arm was restored from dereliction between 1982 and 1988 by the Saltisford Canal trust and is now home to seven families living aboard. They have a laundrette on site and, even though I have a washing machine on board, I availed myself of their facilities to wash and DRY the towels :-)

Monday 18th July

A bright morning though the forecast was for more rain. We took on water, which seemed to take an age, and set off for the Grand Union. The wind at Wigrams Turn was interesting! I did wonder if Richard was going to get Mary H round or if I was going to have to fend the bank off but, of course, we made it! It seems strange being on a big wide canal again – we’ve been on narrow canals for a year now. The first locks were a set of three, Calcutt Locks, and we were joined by a hire boat with 2 families on board. It was their first lock and, as you can imagine, were complete novices. However after Calcutt Locks and nine locks of the Stockton flight they were experts and we came down the Stockton flight at a rate of knots with people flying everywhere working the locks! They stopped to get water and we completed the last two of the Stockton flight. After Stockton we soon came to Bascote Locks. The first two are staircase locks – I looked on the internet for a description of these to help readers (who are not boaters) understand them. I’m afraid they all seem quite long winded but here goes!! “After operating a few dozen locks most boaters feel thoroughly at home with the procedure but an encounter with staircase locks can give pause for thought to even the experienced crew. A lock staircase, or riser, is defined as two, or more, adjacent locks where the upper gates of one lock serve as the lower gates of the next. This means that there are no pounds between locks and on leaving one lock the next lock in the staircase is entered immediately. The method of operating staircase locks is somewhat different from that used for single locks and the variety of lock designs do not aid our understanding.” We pulled over for the night just above Welsh Road Lock, so called as the road was originally a drover’s road, along which cattle were driven from Wales to either the fattening fields of East Anglia or Smithfield Market.

Sunday 17th July

Another wet morning :-( I think we are in for quite a few of them over the next week if the weather forecasters are correct, however Richard donned his wet weather gear and we set off – his choice not mine I hasten to add! The first boat we passed was a hire boat and I had to giggle, I assume they had only just taken the boat over and were determined to enjoy themselves even it was raining – the lady was sat at the front under an umbrella reading a book – I wish I had had the camera to hand!! I took the opportunity of the wet weather to do some housework – I find it more exhausting hovering the nooks and crannies of the boat than hoovering the whole of Somersfield! I was just about to wash the kitchen floor (!) when we got to Napton Top Lock so I had to stop – shame! The top lock is called Marston Lock and is on quite a sharp 90º turn but the experienced helmsperson (me of course) managed it perfectly :-) It poured with rain over lunchtime – good timing but we came down the flight in the dry though the boat was blowing everywhere. The new geraniums are still in the front of the boat.

Saturday 16th July

The threatened rain came in about 6.30am and continued till about 1pm. I’m afraid we didn’t get up very early – what was the point?? Richard did a cooked breakfast and then we did a few jobs around the boat. I wanted to put some Velcro on the window over the bed as Richard seems to manage to open the curtains when he turns over! In Banbury there was a light that kept shining in on me so I kept shutting the curtains only to find they were open again! Anyway it is done now so I can rest easy tonight!! Once the rain stopped we set off and had three locks to do then the five of the Claydon Flight. The first three were all against us but the flight were all with us – it does make life easier! We are now at the top of the Oxford Canal and its windy! We had to take the new geraniums off the roof as they were getting very blown and I could just see them being blown out of their pots! Just after Claydon Top Lock I received a Facebook post from Julie Cozze-Young who was my Adecco manager when I worked for IBM/Lenovo. She asked me if we had just gone through Claydon locks as she thought she had seen me!! I don’t usually look at the faces of walkers as one doesn’t really expect to see anyone you know. I didn’t notice her and her husband Tim, who was my IBM/Lenovo manager for a few years, and she said she looked up and saw me at the last minute. What a shame it would have been nice to have offered them a cup of tea and have a catch-up. We moored in a lovely spot where we had moored two years ago. There aren’t many places on the canal where you have a view but this is one of them. Richard and I went for a walk in the evening closely followed by Millie! At one stage she bounded ahead just like a small dog – it was so funny.

Friday 15th July

A slow start this morning – could it have been the wine last night?? We walked to Hilliers Garden Centre which is almost next to the canal and bought some geraniums for the roof as the petunias are more or less over and looking a bit of a mess. We then walked into town for a mooch and I got some new cropped trousers and a Tshirt. Banbury is a riot of colour with their wonderful plants. The colour theme is red and yellow and they have just about every bedding plant that you can think of that come in those colours. Kaydee appeared just as we were getting ready to leave so we had a quick chat, a quick cup of coffee and we were off. It was a lovely afternoon but we knew that rain was threatened :-) We got water at Cropredy Wharf then went up through the lock to the moorings and tied up. I planted the new plants though I had bought one too many geraniums – I didn’t realise the trough was that small! But I had bought a new pot to put the chives in so the extra geranium went into that. We sat on the towpath and decided what plants we will have next year! I’ve done vanilla marigolds which I grew from seed but I am rather disappointed with them as the heads are rather small. There are also some ageratum in the troughs but they are now dwarfed by all the greenery from the marigolds. I tried to be clever and keep the flowers to the colours of the boat – I wont do that next year.

Thursday 14th July

Having said that I wasn’t going to write anything today I decided to. I had a very easy journey to West Ruislip with just one change on the train. The sun shone and the funeral service was lovely. I worked with Stuart and his wife Kathy 35 years ago and have kept in touch ever since. Stuart was the best man at my wedding to Derek in 1975. When I got back to Mary H we moved down into the main mooring area of Banbury and decided to go out for a meal as there was no TV reception! We found a Thai restaurant and had a lovely meal. It was such a lovely evening that we sat on a bench by the boat and had a glass (or two) of wine while Millie had a nose around. We were surprised at her as normally when we are in a built up area she wont leave the boat. Richard put her cat flap door in but we don’t know if she actually went out during the night. I thought I would add the above photo to show you Richard’s patent way of securing Millie’s cat flap door at night!!

Wednesday 13th July

I had a little repercussion from my knee last night :-( I woke up with a slight pain in the back of the knee but took some paracetamols and it seemed to ease. The knee is very tight today and my first exercises were hard work. Our first lock was Somerton Deep Lock, its 12 foot deep and is quite, well the guide book calls it, reminiscent of an elephant trap!! It vies with Tardebigge, on the Worcester and Birmingham, for the honour of being the deepest narrowbeam chamber on the canal system. We will be doing the Worcester and Birmingham this summer so I will compare them! When we got to Aynho we discovered that it does have water!! Typical, I must add it to the map – it could have saved us time yesterday. The canal seemed busier today and at one lock there was a queue of three boats waiting to come down – fortunately we were going up! However we stopped for lunch and at least three boats came past us going our way. There was a queue at the first lock after lunch but after that it seemed to sort itself out. In Banbury we stopped short of the main mooring area and went to Morrisons to vittle up and decided to stay there as it is close to the station. I wont be doing a blog tomorrow, Thursday, as I am going to Ruislip for the funeral of an old friend. Richard will stay on Mary H and says he is going to do some painting. We will then stay in Banbury for another night and set off again on Friday.

Tuesday 12th July

Not such a nice day today. We left Thrupp and headed north – we have to be in Banbury tomorrow night so that I can get the train to Uxbridge on Thursday to go to the funeral. I did a couple of locks this afternoon – not big ones and my knee to stand up to it however I won’t do anymore today to make sure I haven’t pulled anything!! We stopped for water at Lower Heyford and had to wait while two other boats filled up. We were told that there is water at Aynho but we couldn’t see it on the map so didn’t want to risk it. At Heyford we came across a boat called Muddy Waters. Those of you with children will no doubt know the books and the boat was all painted to look like the books. If your children like the books you can either hire one of the boats for the day or for a cruise Muddy Waters Canal Boats We knew where we wanted to moor as we had been through 2 years ago but when we got there it was full of shut up empty boats. The majority of the Oxford seems to be full of liveaboards, water gypsies or free moorers. I don’t mean this badly as we have met lots of people who live aboard but they are really continuous cruisers – the boats we have seen are shut up during the day and the owners away at work or something. We met some hire boaters today who said that three years ago they got to Thrupp from Napton Junction in 3.5 days but this year they didn’t think they would make it in 4.5 days. We seem to have spent the majority of the canal so far on tick-over passing moored boats.

Monday 11th July

Oh dear – Millie fell in again last night :-( Something woke me up in the middle of the night and I thought ‘I hope that wasn’t Millie falling in’. I got up and walked into the main cabin and felt wet carpet under my feet! I put the light on and there was a very wet and bedraggled cat. I grabbed a towel and wrapped her up and cuddled her – the strange thing was that her head wasn’t wet! She didn’t really want to be swaddled and cuddled so it didn’t last very long. When I put her down she went under the table and started washing herself. When we got up this morning she was fine – I wonder if I hadn’t heard her if we would have been any the wiser! Richard looked at the bank and just couldn’t work out how she got out - she must have either scrabbled or leapt up the bank somehow! We set off quite early for us and went back though Eynsham Lock – our last lock on the Thames. At Duke’s Cut we turned off the Thames and up the Oxford Canal. I shall miss the Thames as it is a lovely river and very boat friendly with lots of places to moor and lovely easy locks! I saw a couple of marinas at Osney yesterday and will certainly see if they have any mooring room when we next come back down this way. It was strange coming back on the canals and especially the Oxford as it has narrow locks. It doesn’t seem too busy though there was a queue at the first lock. Thrupp was our destination today and we arrived in time for a late lunch. We came across one of the boats, Kaydee, we had been stuck at Ufton swing bridge and had a good old natter! It was a lovely afternoon and I sat on the bank and read while Richard did some painting. I was feeding a couple of ducks when a whole flock of them appeared – they were all mallards except for the one in the photo. I think it must be a crossbreed unless anyone knows different!! We went to Boat Inn for a drink and then went back to Mary H for dinner.

Sunday 10th July

We had a rather disturbed night as we could hear music – well the bass part anyway – till 6am!! Goodness knows how the local residents coped! After the music stopped the rowers started on the water – 7am on a Sunday morning – MAD!! Richard walked into town to get some shopping for a local Tesco Express and then we set off. We shared Osney Lock with a hire boat and then hoped we would get under Osney Bridge (7ft 6ins) with the solar lights in the planters – we got under by an inch – crazy! In fact when we got to the next lock I discovered that the top of one of the lights had come off and was, fortunately, in the planter. We had decided to moor just up from Eynsham Lock and found some very nice moorings, although it did cost us £5. The owner came round at lunchtime for his money – he was a very chatty man who gave us all sorts of information on the area. After lunch we went for a walk – supposedly into Eynsham but it was too far for me to walk, especially after yesterday. We are moored just above Swinford Bridge which is one of the two remaining toll bridges that cross the Thames upstream of London, the other being Whitchurch Bridge. The bridge, a Georgian structure built of local limestone, was opened in 1769. It replaced a pre-existing ferry and its construction was funded by the Earl of Abingdon. The bridge is governed by its own Act of Parliament. It allows the bridge owner to collect tolls (at present 5p for a car!) and makes the building of bridges across the river illegal for three miles either way up or down stream from Swinford. By repute, the owners do not pay tax on the revenue from the tolls as a perquisite from King George III. You can see from the photo that the limestone is eroding away – I hope the owner has enough money to keep it repaired. The bridge fetched £1.08m at auction in December 2009 and the new owner then wanted to remain anonymous however I saw a man going into the house on the bridge which was part of the auction lot – I wonder if he is the mystery owner!!